Poll: Have any of your clients asked about the use of machine translation?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Dec 11, 2018

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Have any of your clients asked about the use of machine translation?".

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neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 14:26
Spanish to English
+ ...
Other Dec 11, 2018

Most of my clients are direct and not agencies, so they tend to leave all the decisions about translation to me. They already know my terms and conditions, and can either accept them or look elsewhere.
The one agency I very occasionally work with sometimes asks me if I work with Trados or some other Cat tool, although I've told them that I only use Wordfast Classic.

PS: A proportion of my work consists of revising/correcting academic papers for publication written in English b
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Most of my clients are direct and not agencies, so they tend to leave all the decisions about translation to me. They already know my terms and conditions, and can either accept them or look elsewhere.
The one agency I very occasionally work with sometimes asks me if I work with Trados or some other Cat tool, although I've told them that I only use Wordfast Classic.

PS: A proportion of my work consists of revising/correcting academic papers for publication written in English by non-native speakers. Obviously, nowadays, sometimes they use MT tools to help them... So in that sense, you could say I am providing a sort of PEMT service, but no one is ramming it down my throat or twisting my arm to do so.

[Edited at 2018-12-11 10:57 GMT]
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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 13:26
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Yes, once! Dec 11, 2018

Two years ago, I was asked by an agency I have been working with very regularly if I would edit a MT text. I corrected the 1st paragraph with revision marks just to make my point and the end client agreed that is was best to translate from scratch…

neilmac
Maja_K
 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 14:26
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Other Dec 11, 2018

Some of my agency clients have asked me not to use MT. I happily comply!

My CAT tool is always offline, or else linked up to a specific agency's own TM, but they do not use machine translation , except by agreement with specific end clients.
The CAT does occasionally compile a suggestion from my TMs, but I can always override it.


 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 06:26
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Yes Dec 11, 2018

I have been post-editing machine translation for one client since 1980. They use their own MT program, which can be quite good, depending ... And they pay very well.

 
megane_wang
megane_wang  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 14:26
Member (2007)
English to Spanish
+ ...
All of them Dec 11, 2018

Mine are agencies and usually have several end customers, and yes, all of them asked/suggested/implemented MT.

After 3 years regularly working with MT...

- A couple end customers have horrendous MT translations and still resist the temptation to go back to human translation. Never mind. Probably they deserve that after all.

- A couple end customers use MT translations only for specific tasks, with more or less acceptable results, but still translate in pers
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Mine are agencies and usually have several end customers, and yes, all of them asked/suggested/implemented MT.

After 3 years regularly working with MT...

- A couple end customers have horrendous MT translations and still resist the temptation to go back to human translation. Never mind. Probably they deserve that after all.

- A couple end customers use MT translations only for specific tasks, with more or less acceptable results, but still translate in person many other things, and will keep on that (thank you!).

- A high tech customer had acceptable MT translations and their editors complained that end translations looked like MT translation. I told them that MT translation + MT post-editing instructions (+ MT rates) = MT translation and suggested them to make proper human translations to get human translations. They did it. Now their editors are happier; me too (a truly BIG thank you to them!).

Ruth
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Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 10:26
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Yes (to make sure I DO NOT use them) Dec 12, 2018

Several clients ask about MT. Some ask me if I work with post-editing, which I usually refuse, but it's a trend in the market, and we'll end up having to "swallow" it.
Most ask me if I use MT as a pre-translation tool, something I'll never do in my life. And I realized most people who make that question do hire my services as soon as I confirm that I DO NOT use MT whatsoever for translation purposes.

Now, let's make it very clear here that CATs are not MTs. They are two very d
... See more
Several clients ask about MT. Some ask me if I work with post-editing, which I usually refuse, but it's a trend in the market, and we'll end up having to "swallow" it.
Most ask me if I use MT as a pre-translation tool, something I'll never do in my life. And I realized most people who make that question do hire my services as soon as I confirm that I DO NOT use MT whatsoever for translation purposes.

Now, let's make it very clear here that CATs are not MTs. They are two very different things, and I do use CATs regularly.

When you run into a translation made by someone that uses MT first, you'll identify that fact by the third line... and discard the translation and the translator.
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Poll: Have any of your clients asked about the use of machine translation?






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